Kaleidoscope
by Natarie
Summary: Team 7 is stuck outside of Konoha on a mission away from a big festival. They whine. Kakashi tries to tell a story, but is mostly made fun of and prevented from reading his beloved book. Sakura might be responsible. Sasuke and Naruto bicker. -One-Shot-


A/N: Oh, look, another amazingly old one-shot I happened to stumble over! I think I wrote this between the chuunin arc and the Kakashi Gaiden arc, which is why it is so... out-dated. I'm pretty sure this was the first Naruto fic I ever wrote and since then my ability to string sentences together in paragraphs that actually make sense has improved vastly, so please excuse any strange sentence structure.  
I thought this was amusing enough on the re-read, so I thought I'd up it!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

* * *

Sakura shuffled around in her pack, interrupting the crackling sounds of the fire with her rummaging. Ringed around the fire were her other teammates, and she'd be damned if she tried staying awake any longer.

Kakashi was reading his silly smut, though how he could see by the dim glow of the fire alone was a mystery to her. In fact—and here her eyes narrowed—if he kept that up he'd lose eyesight in his _other_ eye as well. Oh, he was so in for it now that she knew.

Sasuke was sitting brooding into the fire. Or, well, she said it was brooding, but he usually looked angry or depressed when he was brooding so from his blank expression she just decided he was bored.

And Naruto? It wasn't a mystery what was going through _his_ mind. He was bored. Bored as a bunch of… Well, only about as bored as the rest of them.

Dimly, Sakura's hand closed around the tube she was looking for and she popped the cap, pulling out a small accessory mirror and applying the substance to her face. With all male teammates, she'd heard it once and a hundred times before that carrying a mirror around was pointless and/or girly and non-essential to a ninja's survival. Yet when morning came, she almost always had all three begging to borrow since the alternative was to either find a water source or shave without reflection. And no matter how masochistic she claimed her boys to be sometimes, none of them was particularly fond of having a stinging burn along their jaw line the rest of the day. Naruto, especially, would then plead for ointment even though he had the Kyuubi's healing powers and didn't particularly need it. She much rather let her mirror do rounds than have to make them herself.

And speaking of teammates, they were all watching her, since so far she'd done the only new/interesting thing since they got there. Sasuke's eyes were fairly disapproving, and even Naruto had that sort of confused nervousness he got when he was trying to chastise her, but didn't want it taken in a bad way. Kakashi's eye was just interested, and peeping over the top of his book to see his former students.

Normally she would have just glared at them and got on with it, but the not-quite awkward tension that had dampened the mood since they'd been sent on this mission had her temper flaring in a sudden crack not unlike the one that had just signaled the fire's consumption of a rather large piece of wood. Sparks flew up from the flames and Sakura's eyes.

In a tone that brooked no argument, she addressed her teammates. "This is a medical ointment powerful enough to stop the bleeding and begin the reconstruction process on severe wounds, yet delicate enough to keep something as simple as the infection of neglected acne from bleeding and squirting pus." She practically dared any one of them to make any sort of comment, _any_ at all, that would relate to her, her face, her acne, and the cream in a way she'd inadvertently take offense at.

"Considering I've had to use it on every one of you at some point," here she swiveled her gaze to rest solely on Naruto, who fidgeted, "especially you, Naruto, when I don't have the chakra to expend on your smaller wounds."

Though she'd looked at Naruto, Kakashi and Sasuke both showed mild signs of their discomfort. Naruto's Kyuubi healing prowess kept all but the most grievous of damage from being her responsibility. The flip side of that being that the chakra she didn't use on his smaller cuts then obviously went to tending the damages to her other teammates.

"Oh. And, Kakashi?"

Their old teacher almost jumped up from where he was sitting when her voice suddenly switched to target him. Still, for a normally stoic man they were all used to not being spooked, it was quite easy for them to see how his spine had suddenly arched and how he fumbled with the book in his hands as if unsure of what to do with it. She only ever used his first name only when she wanted to get his attention.

"You really shouldn't read your books," there was the slightest stress on the word "books" that did not go unnoticed, "by the light of the fire. If you ruined your single good eye, I'd hate," spoken with the utmost of sugary sweetness, "to have to see you prescribed with a monocle. As my dear former sensei, it would make me sad since your reputation would never live it down."

This was quite correct, this point that she made. Kakashi laughed and scratched at the back of his head awkwardly, as he tried to replace the book back into its regular pocket as inconspicuously as possible.

Sasuke glanced at Sakura warily. He was the only one yet to be reprimanded by Sakura. If he could keep it up, it ensured he'd have bragging rights for the next week at least in the bet between him and Naruto. God forbid Sakura ever find out about it, though. If she knew they competed over something as petty as her affections in regards to whom she beat on the most, she would give more attention to dealing out punishments equally, and Sasuke would lose one of his many sources of blackmail against his nemesis, which was a stark no-no in the Uchiha's little black book.

As if knowing what he was thinking, Sakura sent him a withering look, and he shrank back slightly, to Naruto's glee.

Sakura finished with her before-bed routine, having already washed her face, brushed her teeth, and found a nice bush earlier before coming back to their camp. She pulled out her bedroll and placed it in prime real estate near the fire, before fluffing her pillow and placing it ready and waiting. Then she proceeded to pull out a hairbrush and run it lazily through her hair.

The silence was deafening.

"I can't believe we're missing the festival. Ichiraku offers specials on ramen!"

"Yes, you've said that already," Sasuke muttered glibly.

Naruto shot him a scandalized look.

"Only because it's true! Admit it, Sasuke-teme, you were looking forward to that one dumpling stand you like, weren't you?"

Sasuke continued his muttering under his breath, though he shot a look at Naruto that clearly said to stow it. Kakashi let them bicker for a few moments, then he folded his arms over his chest and sighed.

"I know everyone was looking forward to the festival…"

Naruto and Sakura stared at him with identical "are you kidding?" looks, and even Sasuke felt the need to level a malignant stare at the older man.

"What about you, Kakashi-sensei? Weren't you looking forward to something?" Naruto just had to pipe up.

"An old man like him? I don't really see him trolling, do you, dobe?"

Sasuke didn't _really_ mean that "old man" comment, he was sure. Still, he had to admit that the respect level among his former students had gone down from what it had once been. It couldn't be helped, though. Each of them was powerful enough to take him 1-on-1 now, and it was taking more shows of his battle-wizened experience to show he was still more knowledgeable than they were… but still young at heart.

"Eww," Naruto scrunched up his face. "What, you mean like Kakashi-sensei getting a _date_, or something like that?"

Kakashi sighed again. No respect at _all_.

"No, I'm sure Kakashi-sensei can get a date if he wants one."

Sasuke and Naruto's heads shot to Sakura in shock.

"…But, somehow I don't see him as the type to be doing that at festival, much less any other time."

Their heads turned back to Kakashi. Should've known Sakura wasn't _completely_ protecting their old teacher.

Kakashi winced. He could _hear_ the old comments in all of their heads.

"What I do in my free time is none of your business."

"Except that we routinely _make_ it our business." Sasuke wasn't embarrassed at all with that comment! Kakashi should have felt affronted, but he couldn't muster the effort.

Naruto jabbed a finger in Sasuke's direction. "Stop staring at me, Sasuke! I know you two go out for coffee sometimes, too!"

"You always come by and raid his fridge."

"Like that matters. There's never anything in there!"

"And then you _both_ come over and raid _my_ fridge," Sakura interrupted.

"Only because your cooking is so good, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura narrowed her eyes and Naruto smiled nervously.

"I can vouch for the cooking part. It is very good."

She glared at Kakashi in a way that told him his eye-creasing was only serving to remind her of his firelight reading. He shrank back a bit.

"If I'm wishing for Ichiraku and Sasuke wants dumplings, what did _you_ want to do at the festival, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi sent a silent prayer up to whoever was watching out for him. It was a good thing sometimes that Naruto had such a short attention span.

Sakura scoffed. "To get away from the three of you, obviously."

Two reprimanding looks were sent her way along with a third hurt one. She stuck her tongue out at them, ever the mature one.

"Even if I have to deal with Ino taunting my LoD status—," she blinked at the blank looks she was receiving and rolled her eyes, thinking they'd have known her better than that by now, "**L**ack **o**f **D**ate," she confirmed, "—I'd much rather be in town dressed up eating free samples and warm than out here having to sleep on the ground and not being able to take proper showers or get a decent amount of privacy."

"Does the fire need more wood?"

Sakura held up her hairbrush like she meant to throw it at him, but wisely put it back in her bag. She was _not_ winding up borrowing Sasuke's comb again, that was for sure.

"Nice try, Kakashi-sensei. Your turn."

Naruto nodded eagerly and Sasuke went back to watching his teacher sweat under the influence of his pink-haired former student.

Kakashi's head drooped in a "do I have to?" sort of way, but three insistent looks had him open his mouth anyways.

"Normally, I'd go bar hopping with Genma," Naruto could attest to this; he liked to crash his sensei's free time to hang out, "but this festival is so big that I catch up with people in town to enjoy the festivities."

Three incredulous looks were directed his way.

"Stop _lying_, Kakashi-sensei!"

"I agree with dobe."

"Ooh, _I_ know what he does. I remember last festival!"

Kakashi looked at Sakura in sudden panic. What, what had he done last time? He honestly couldn't remember. Next to him Naruto and Sasuke stirred with the knowledge that Sakura knew something they didn't, and might wind up singing about it if she didn't spill just to help with her bad temper.

Meanwhile, Sakura shot Kakashi a meaningful look. And all of a sudden one particular conversation came back to him.

"_Hey, Kakashi-sensei!"_

"_Sakura, I didn't know you came here…"_

"_What, a bar?" she scoffed. "C'mon, Kakashi-sensei. You of all people know I'm over the drinking age. And I'm not Tsunade-shishou's apprentice for nothing."_

_He could definitely see it. The few times he'd seen Sakura drink, her tolerance had been amazing for someone of her size and physique._

_They sat in silence at the bar for minutes. Kakashi because he honestly didn't know what to say, and Sakura because she was enjoying the feeling of knowing he didn't know what to say. Women's intuition, whatever would she do without it?_

_After another few minutes and a refill for Kakashi, he finally cleared his throat._

"_So, Sakura, it's been, what, three months?"_

"_Enough time for you to become completely uncomfortable with me, Kakashi-sensei?"_

"_Well, no, I er… yes."_

_Sakura laughed then and he gave a silent sigh of relief, smiling to hear her laughing after so long._

"_You're cute, Kakashi-sensei."_

_He blinked slowly. That was an odd choice of words. Next to him she drained her glass and signaled for another one. Seeing the bartender pulling out another glass, she turned to him with a questioning glance._

"_But I've been wondering."_

"_Yes?"_

"_You _do_ get with women sometimes, don't you, Kakashi-sensei?"_

_Instead of turning when she heard the sound of the glass whizzing down the bar, she caught it effortlessly without looking and therefore managed to spot the stiffening of his spine._

"_That, ah."_

_He frowned and gave her a look that distinctly told her to drop the subject. Once again she laughed, patting him on the back and he winced because she'd forgotten that she could punch her way through solid concrete and he had to keep his spine for the rest of his life since he only got one._

"_I'll take that as a 'yes.' And, don't worry. I'm not young enough to be naïve about that sort of thing anymore."_

_Kakashi kept frowning. That comment was slightly bothering him. In fact, this whole conversation was off. Why was it that actually being a good teacher and being friends with his students meant his privacy and personal life were moot points?_

"_What exactly brought this question up?"_

_She glanced up at him then and twirled a finger about her glass._

"_Well, see, _I_ know better, but Sasuke and Naruto still don't believe you're capable of putting the moves on a woman."_

_Kakashi blinked. Shows how much _he_ knew about his former students._

"_And this is a long-standing assumption?"_

"_That you're asexual?" he winced, "yeah. I used to be with them too, but not anymore. See, to Naruto and Sasuke you're a man, but you're not _male_, y'know?"_

_Kakashi slowly shook his head, not exactly sure he _wanted_ to know. But he had to open his mouth anyways, "Not really."_

"_Oh." She looked slightly embarrassed now. At least there was _one_ turn in the conversation in his favor._

"_Well, it's sort of like, um. Have you ever heard that 'if you don't use it, you lose it?'" She worried her lip, hoping he'd get it so she didn't have to explain anymore._

_Kakashi remembered Genma saying something like that once. There'd been a rather buxom blonde eyeing him up, but he'd come from one of the missions where he was paired with his former students, and just wanted to go home and sleep. Students former or no, but they _still _tired him out more than fighting against S-class criminals ever could._

_Genma had tutted at him as he walked out the door, and remarked that very same passing comment, loud enough for the rest of the bar to hear. Needless to say, Genma wasn't so hot the next day when he was fighting off both a hangover _and_ Kakashi._

_Not really trusting himself to say so, Kakashi spoke, "I've heard that… before."_

_Sakura nodded dumbly. "Yeah. And, well, that's what Sasuke and Naruto think."_

_Kakashi sighed. No respect at _all_._

_He brightened a bit and turned to Sakura who was idly sipping at her glass._

"_But you don't think that?"_

_She shook her head no in confirmation and lowered the glass._

"_No, because I know better." Without waiting for a response, she continued. "You remember last year's big festival? Or, rather, you don't. Because you were _completely_ sloshed."_

_Kakashi had a sinking feeling in his gut. She was right, he _didn't_ remember. He'd awoken on the Hokage monument, which wasn't exactly unusual since he liked to read up there. What was unusual was that he didn't have Icha Icha Paradise _anywhere_ on him. That meant he'd somehow gotten up there and fallen asleep _without_ his beloved book. And searching his memory had failed him. The only bright side to the situation he'd been able to see was that he was wearing all of his clothes. With that confirmed he'd gone off to find his book._

_But somehow now Kakashi knew that Sakura probably knew what had happened to him. The problem was that he was quite sure it wasn't anything good._

_Sakura fidgeted, then looked at him point blank. "You were flirting outrageously with Miss Inoue and she didn't look like she minded at all."_

_Miss Inoue? Why did that name ring a bell in his mind?_

"_Miss Yamanaka," Sakura clarified._

_Kakashi froze._

"_Ino… Yamanaka…?"_

_Sakura was nodding her head looking half bemused and half embarrassed for her teacher's embarrassment. Then she stopped and looked at him. There was a beat of time as she digested what he'd asked. Then she burst out laughing._

_Kakashi felt faintly hurt. Not only had he done something that could possibly get him castrated by Asuma _and _Inochi, but Sakura had fooled him into thinking she was telling him out of the goodness of her heart!_

_As he sat up to leave, feeling peeved and annoyed with the whole situation, Sakura's arm shot to his sleeve and tugged him back down._

"_Kakashi! Kakashi-sensei," she gasped between laughs. "No, no, it's not like that. I mean, yes, it is because I'm laughing at you, but not like _that_."_

_Kakashi remained standing there, arms folded over his chest waiting for her to stop laughing._

_When she'd finally calmed down, she wiped at her eyes and smiled disarmingly at Kakashi._

"_You've got the wrong idea, Kakashi-sensei. Inoue Yamanaka is Ino's _mom_. I just call her 'Miss.'" He wasn't all that sure that made him feel any better. That just meant his castration was now Inoichi's responsibility alone._

_He sat down heavily at the bar. "I flirted with Ino's mom."_

_Sakura nodded. He reached around her and snagged her drink without her permission and drained it._

"_Who saw?"_

"_Just me. I made sure."_

_Kakashi sighed. "I'm not sure that was the best way for you to find out I'm heterosexual," he stated calmly._

_At his side Sakura giggled. "Oh, don't worry. It was bound to happen. And it could have been worse."_

_He raised an eyebrow at her statement. She fidgeted again._

"_I could have, er, walked in on you… uh. Kakashi-sensei, have you picked up the latest Icha Icha volume yet? Naruto keeps blabbing to me about it, what with having Jiraiya as a sensei and all…"_

_She laughed nervously and they both tried to pretend the entire first part of their conversation had never happened._

Kakashi's eye widened. How could he stall? Sakura's lip curled into a smile at his shock.

"I have pictures," she murmured in a deliciously sinister purr.

"What, what!" Naruto wasn't one for suspense. Even Sasuke next to him looked about ready to start voicing complaints about the speed of divulging this particular secret.

Sakura tapped a finger to her lips while watching Kakashi squirm. Then she abruptly changed her tone from playful to bland.

"Tell us a story, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He hadn't seen that one coming. Neither had Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto looked thoroughly disappointed he wouldn't be getting to hear the secret, but Sasuke was smart enough to figure that maybe Sakura was trying to use the knowledge to make Kakashi divulge something more worthwhile to hear.

"A bedtime story? I'm sorry, Sakura, but aren't you a little old for that?"

The look she directed at him clearly showed she knew what he was trying to do and that it wasn't working. If he wanted those pictures to stay secret, he'd better come up with a decent story to tell the group—meaning she wanted something personal/from his past.

Kakashi shot her one straight glare and Sakura's mouth curved into a smile. He lost and rubbed his head. Strangely enough, though, he _did_ have a story. And he didn't exactly mind telling it either. Sort of.

"Hmm, fine. I _do_ have a story I can tell."

He glanced up in time to see three heads directed straight at him. At least he had a decent audience for his story.

"Once upon a time," he began, only to be interrupted with the sounds of three scoffs combined into one, "there was a scarecrow who decided he was tired of putting up with the same rowdy group of crows all the time and left. The end."

He was met with Naruto's blank stare, Sasuke's annoyed frown, and Sakura's angry glower. She opened her mouth, but he effectively cut her off.

"Back when I was young… er." He paused, just to make sure they got that part. "The festival that we are currently all missing is a long-standing tradition in Konoha."

He abruptly clammed up. Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke all gave him identical glowers to get on with it, but his eyes were glazed and staring off into space.

"Even the clans had perfunctionary roles in the festival: it was that important. The Uchiha clan, in particular," all the eyes in the clearing darted to stare at Sasuke, but he was just as surprised as the others, and Kakashi only needed to gauge his reaction to continue, "was called on during the festival to perform a special ceremony.

"You know that the human eye processes images upside down before relaying them to the brain where they are reassembled right-side up so a decision can be made and fired along the synapses." Sakura and Sasuke were the ones to look at here. Sakura was not only required to know this sort of thing, but specifically made it her business to do so. And Sasuke would have learned anything regarding eyes in general just in the hopes of using it somehow to improve his Sharingan. Naruto merely nodded his head numbly. It was quite apparent he'd learned his one new thing for the day.

"The rate at which the normal eye sends information to the brain to be processed is around fifty milliseconds. However, the Sharingan processes images much faster to relay them to the brain in a shorter amount of time, hence the ability of the user to copy split-second jutsu and mimic them in time with the target."

Kakashi's eyes rested on Sasuke, who would know the best of any of them, since he had similar ocular circumstances as Kakashi and fought with the same basic technique. Naruto shifted and stared into the fire. He wouldn't have gotten so excited about a story from Kakashi-sensei if he'd _known_ it would also wind up being a lesson to teach him something at the same time!

"With the added ability of the Sharingan's use of genjutsu," he halted, having found a hitch in his story. He scratched his nose under his mask idly while the other three waited for him to resume speaking.

"Well. In the ceremony the Uchiha clan—all that could use the Sharingan with genjutsu to some proficiency would gather. It's been a long time since it was used so I don't know if it still exists, but there used to be a large crystal prism that would be set at the base of the Hokage monument." He noticed the glint in Sakura's eye and decided he needed a rest.

"Wait, Kakashi-sensei. You mean they'd reflect images into the prism?"

Kakashi gave her a fond smile. This was why he actually went out of his way—meaning getting up before noon and not lolly-gagging about an extra three hours after that—to meet up with Sakura every couple of weeks or so. Talk with Sasuke could be as intellectually stimulating, but there was nothing that could replace Sakura's brightness in speech. Naruto could be just as bright, but _he_ didn't let Kakashi get his favorite food if he asked, and Kakashi wasn't so lazy as to have limited his diet to a single food dish yet.

"Exactly. Sasuke, did you know an alternate occupation of your clan used to be in glass-blowing?"

Surprised with the sudden shift in Kakashi's attentions, Sasuke's head shot up. "Glass-blowing?"

"Most of the techniques used in the Fire Country are actually devised from the fire jutsu of your clan."

Sasuke seemed to digest the information for a minute though initially he had looked about as blank as Naruto. Sakura almost felt like pointing out the similarities between the two, but decided not to risk it. The last time she and Kakashi had shared in the joke that got the two fighting, Naruto had landed them in the flames and the insuring rush to put them out had meant almost everyone came out looking chargrilled. Then Naruto had made his comment about fried chicken, and Kakashi had been forced to bury them both up to their heads lest Sasuke actually succeed in getting a "lucky fox paw."

Sakura instead spoke out a bit of random Fire Country trivia. "I remember Tsunade-shishou had to sort through numerous negotiation attempts with Sand after the invasion. Fire Country glass is actually one of our chief exports." Seeing the empty looks from her three male teammates, she clarified, "Glass is created with a combination of extreme heat and sand."

In wake of that, Kakashi tried to get his attempt at storytelling back on track.

"If I recall, the prism was an old Uchiha heirloom. Light patterns directed into it in just the right direction could send up multitudes of reflections hundreds of feet above the village proper. Those assigned to festival duty would practice memorization and creation of the piece of the illusion they were assigned for months in advance. I remember that one of the first things anyone with newly activated Sharingan would try would be the manipulation of genjutsu into a prism."

He frowned. He distinctly recalled Obito having taken out a prism once or twice when he'd thought no one was watching. He abandoned looking into it when he thought use of the Sharingan was denied to him, but Kakashi had always had the idea that it was still close at hand.

Sakura's voice snapped him from his recollections, "Wow, that must have been amazing."

"But what about the loud noises? Explosions and lights from fireworks are more exciting!"

Sasuke whapped the blond over the head.

"It figures you'd agree with something loud like that, dobe." Naruto was about to jump for a comeback when he noticed the serious look in Sasuke's eyes. "What happened?"

Kakashi sighed. "The war took everyone by surprise. Konoha was hit hard, and the clans suffered like the rest of the village. After that I don't think anyone was particularly in the mood for frivolous celebration. Your father probably saw the ceremony, but after that time I doubt the workings of it were passed on to the next generation in anything more than stories. It's a lost art, meant for happier times when the Uchiha were more abundant."

The silence had a dull sullen tinge to it, and Kakashi wished he'd finished on a happier note.

But before Sasuke could make some dim and angsty comment regarding Itachi, Sakura's voice broke through the air. "Kakashi-sensei, you said you saw the ceremony when you were young?"

Kakashi winced a bit at the "young" comment, but wasn't altogether opposed with her changing of the subject. Naruto piped up at the chance to possibly get their sensei to show off another of his tricks.

"Kakashi-sensei, you know how to do it, don't you? Can you show us?"

He smiled and removed a small plastic prism from one of his vest pockets. It wasn't as pretty as glass, but it was also less likely to get smashed and embedded in his skin if something were to happen.

Focusing on it, he shifted his headband off his eye and tried to think of an image he could concentrate on long enough to direct it properly into the prism. Unfortunately, the only image he could think of was the slashed through circle on the front of his Icha Icha books. He hoped his students were too preoccupied with the pretty lights to notice.

Using the Sharingan, the image was focused through the prism in a relatively weak genjutsu. It passed into the prism and split, hovering and reflected into several different directions as the image was spun and distorted or flipped and enlarged based on the facet it had passed through to hover in the air right above the campsite, suspended like an eerie star.

With a twist he changed the image slightly and turned the prism so it was directed in a different angle. As he slowly rotated the prism in one hand, the image changed shape and color little by little in a simple, yet captivating show that had him smiling at the noises of appreciation the others were expressing.

In a last final show he projected the image of a flower, small half circle with lines radiating out from it he hoped Naruto was astute enough to grasp, an image not unlike the Uchiha family crest, and the circle from the very beginning, only with a more vertical slash than diagonal. Each went up individually before appearing in one final swirl as he let them fade into the dark.

Sasuke mutely reached a hand out and Kakashi placed the prism into it. He smiled, and Kakashi couldn't help the sudden urge to pull a Gai and run about the clearing for a victory lap at seeing an infamously unflappable shinobi smiling like a twelve-year-old.

Naruto grinned broadly and sent Kakashi a thumbs-up before leaning over Sasuke and appearing to break his good mood by then attempting to manhandle the Uchiha into using the prism with two Sharingan eyes instead of just one. Sasuke started attempting to lecture Naruto in a peeved tone that just because _he_ had two eyes didn't mean he saw two completely different things in each eye, before giving up and starting to practice using his Sharingan on the prism.

Sakura got up and walked quietly over to sit next to Kakashi.

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei."

They sat in comfort near the fire, watching Naruto and Sasuke bicker and shove good-naturedly.

"I want the negatives."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed when she didn't begin protesting.

"And information on anything else you might have to blackmail me with."

Beside him, Sakura laughed.

"Hey, dobe, Kakashi will buy you ramen if you can name any part of the eye."

Kakashi frowned from his comfy position by the fire. What? Where had the respect gone that had clearly been shining from their eyes only moments before? That story had to be rated at _least_ on par with the implications of him actually showing up for something on time on the Kakashi Greatness Scale!

"Think of the lady at Ichiraku, Naruto! Her nam—"

"No hints, Sakura!"

Sakura closed her mouth and sent Kakashi a chagrined look, to which he responded with an eye-crease and a shrug of shoulders before pulling out his Icha Icha novel again.

Sakura wrinkled her brow and slowly put a hand on the top of the book. Kakashi lowered it and glanced at her. Her glare made him hurriedly aware of what he was doing and he quickly slid the book back into the pouch while attempting to look "cute and defenseless" with only one eye visible.

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and Kakashi motioned towards his bedroll in a lame escape tactic before excusing himself to go to sleep.

"That's not fair, Sasuke-teme! How the hell am _I_ supposed to know her name means 'iris?' And why is there a flower in the eye anyways?"

Kakashi sighed and rolled over on his side. This sucked. He wanted to read his book, but he couldn't, and he wouldn't be able to sleep anyways with all the noise they were making. He had _thought_ being away from the exploding fireworks would mean he'd actually be able to sleep, but he had been completely _wrong_.

* * *

"No, Naruto, I am _not_ going to animate that _children's_ story you like so much just because you can't sleep."

"Please? Not even for ten bowls of ramen?"

"No! The only one who'd fall for that is _you_."

"But my Kage Bunshin can't _use_ the Sharingan."

Sasuke twitched.

* * *

A/N: I know the festival/war makes no canon sense, but when I wrote this I wanted to write something happy about Konoha and the Uchiha. It just seems like anything to do with them is full of woe and angst.

and this is slightly kakasaku on the re-read, isn't it? whoops!


End file.
